Economics from Someone Who Knows Nothing About Economics
Day 1,395, 18:40
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Published in USA 
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by
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by PencilPal
Hello, and welcome to the Poor Mans Blanket. I'm your man behind the desk, PencilPal.
The PMB has missed a couple days, mostly because I'm taking 6 Advanced Placement classes (and tests) this year, and CALCULUS IS HARD. So to make up for that, I've decided to boldly step into somewhere only experts reside: the world of finance. To be perfectly honest, a high school economics course is the extent of my knowledge of the subject so don't presume I know anything you don't. Now...
On to the news!
To complete my persona as a newbie, I want to talk about what all newbs want to talk about: the income tax. Hopefully, my dissecting it from a couple different angles will make this article interesting. First of, economically, the income tax is outrageously high bringing in an unnecessary surplus. Right now, we're taking in more money a day than we can spend, leaving us with a large amount just...sitting. I understand the need to have reserves in the case of emergencies, but the reserves are nigh inaccessible due to the arbitrary limit placed on how much money Congress can spend per day. In the event of an emergency, we wouldn't be able to dip into those funds created by a large income tax or spend anymore than we do in a normal day. I'm all for storing nuts for the winter, but I don't believe in letting them spoil. A better way to collect money is the "grabbag" option newly introduced. It was a huge success and put money immediately into the accessible parts of the US reserve. With options like that, a high income tax is plainly unacceptable.
Another way we should look at the income tax rate is socially. The RL United States has always had a political culture infatuated with low tax rates, and so it isn't surprising to know that many of the eUS' new citizens favor choosing for themselves where to spend their money. It is off putting for them to apply for a job that is supposed to earn 100 dollars, and only get 85. Being disappointed with this, in addition to the COUNTLESS disappointments eRepublik has to offer these days, can severely impact the amount of new citizens staying in the eUS. That's my spiel. Income taxes are too high because the money sits in our reserves without use or easy access by Congress, grab-bags have made this method of fund-raising obsolete, and high income taxes significantly affect retention in the eUS.
Now, please don't hurt me!
Thank you so much for reading.
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Comments
Voted for the last picture
feeling the love
Voted for the last picturex2
Voted. I still think one of the greatest lines I've ever seen in an article is "my newspaper is shit so I will overwhelm you with it."
Voted for the last picture x3
My bad, its I will overwhelm you with volume.
A few thoughts:
- Income at 15% is not too high. Maybe combined with the 10% VAT brings taxes a bit high, but that's a whole new discussion.
- Keep in mind that the income you gait at your job is only a portion of your total income.
- I'd guess that the excess money came (and may still be coming) from VAT and import tax on food.
- Treasury Reserves are not that high either. It's not even a million :Ρ Just take a look at Poland, Serbia and Spain
voted nevertheless
Pencil for President!
V
There are other ways to pull money out of the reserves, not just the donations to the CBO. I honestly don't mind the current temporary taxes at the rate they are now, as long as they're only temporary, and will be changed when a suitable reserve is reached.
TP is right, there is more than one way to skin a CBO donation! Also some serious thought has been given to how much reserve is a good idea. Let's put it this way, IF (and I stress the word 'if') the eUSA is ever wiped again (no regions left), the reserve will be the only money we have to give the military to fight with. There is no income with no regions. Also, (wink) I want to run for Congress on the 25th to keep an eye on the tax situation. (end of self promotion spam)
About this quote: "...and CALCULUS IS HARD." Take it from an old fart that never went to college. Calc is possibly difficult, hard is sleeping in your car after eating the last can of beans and hoping you can find a job tomorrow cleaning toilets or taking out someone's trash so you can eat again. Digging hamburgers out of the trash in McD's dumpster is difficult, especially with the manager hitting you with a broom handle. xD
Umm, the income tax used to be 23%, so you can imagine how things were back then...I recommended taking the income tax to zero and relying on VAT to raise funds for the government. This is a much fairer system, since many players work for low wages, with their real compensation donated to them in the form of bonuses and commissions. When the admins abolished organizations and company managers, they created a huge tax loophole in the game system.
@ Everyone, I actually wrote out a response to everyone, but my computer deleted it so I'm not typing it all out again. 😛 On a more relevant note, thank you all for responding. This paper doesn't survive without you. You brought up some serious points that got me to reexamine the tax issue a bit.
Voted for the last picture x4